Lead wasn’t always the bad cop. It was used to make paint extremely durable. By the mid-1900s, health officials had understood the hazards of lead exposure, including organ and brain damage. This resulted in lead paints being removed from the market, and by 1978, they were completely banned. But you can still find lead-based paint on window and door trim, painted stairways, and old houses. If you’re living in an old house or you own one, then there’s a chance for lead paint to be present. One of the ways to be sure is by getting a lead paint test. Once the presence is confirmed, it’s time to remove it.

The mere presence of lead paint is not much of a concern as it doesn’t impose a health risk. If the paint is in good condition, you can encapsulate or repaint it to prevent exposure. However, the paint gets dangerous once it starts peeling or deteriorating, which can lead to inhalation of lead dust. You might also swallow the lead-based paint chips. So, it’s best to remove it entirely. We’ll discuss the practical steps for how to manage lead-based paint. 

How to Remove Lead-Based Paint

In this blog, we’ll discuss how to remove lead-based paint and the different ways to handle lead paint.

Step1 – Preparation

The first step is to prepare the area for paint removal. You can start by removing furniture, rugs, carpets, and other items from the specific room you will be working on. Next, spread a plastic sheet on the floor and stick it to the bottom of the walls using duct tape at the edges. This will prevent the carpet or flooring from contamination by lead paint chips and dust. It also prevents the dust from sifting through the gap in laminate or hardwood flooring.

Step 2 – Cover Air Inlets

After securing your floor, turn off your HVAC system and cover the heating vents and registers with clear plastic or duct tape. This is another way to keep lead dust from entering your home’s ventilation system. You may also close any windows in the room as it helps prevent drafts that can later distribute lead dust. Besides this, fill a plastic bucket halfway with warm water and put it in the room where you will remove the paint. Then, close the adjacent rooms and cover the doorway with a plastic sheet.

Step 3 – Cover Yourself

Once you’ve performed a couple of steps, you need to focus on protecting yourself. For this, you shall wear a lead-rated respirator mask that must be fitted with an approved HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filter. You shall also wear rubber gloves, protective goggles, and old clothes that you can dispose of after removal.  

Step 4 – Scraping

After this, thoroughly spray the areas where you witness chipped or peeling paint with a spray bottle filled with water. If you want to remove lead paint, you need to work when it is wet, reducing the risk of inhaling lead dust. Also, it would be best to keep your work area relatively small, a maximum of three feet, as this will ensure that the area you’re working remains wet for a long time. Later, scrape the loosened bits of paint. For this, you can use a hand scraper. Note that you don’t need to remove all the lead paint; removing just the deteriorating or damaged paint will also do. The paint that is not scraped can be painted over.

Step 5 – Sanding

Once again, paint the areas you’re working on with water, then sand them with sanding sponges. Most of the time, the wall gets rough because of scraping, so you must also smooth it down. When sanding, the same rule applies to keeping the area wet. Wet sanding takes longer than dry sanding but won’t result in toxic lead dust. When you’re done with sanding, you must wipe and clean the area with a dampened sponge. This helps in removing residual lead dust and debris safely. Also, frequently change the water bucket to keep it clean.

Step 6 – Diposing

After you’re done scraping and sanding, clean up your work area. You shall use an HEPA vacuum. Let us be clear here, you shall NOT use a household vacuum with a HEPA filter. You shall also vacuum the plastic sheeting on the floor to remove as much dust as you can.

When the sheeting is also vacuumed, you need to carefully remove the plastic sheeting from the floor and doorway. Fold its edges into the center to trap whatever paint particles or chips are remaining. Later, roll it up and place it in a garbage bag.

Ways to Deal with Lead-Based Paint

Encapsulation.

This is the most affordable and least complicated method. It involves rolling or brushing on a specially made paint-like coating that will create a watertight bond – sealing in the lead-based paint. But opening and closing your windows and doors can eventually wear off the coating. The minimum cost of encapsulation products is $50 per gallon. So, you can expect to pay between $800 to $1400 to cover a surface in a 1200-2000 sq. ft. home.

Enclosure

This is another method in which the new surface covers the old one, such as covering windowsills with vinyl or aluminum cladding or putting up new drywall. If you ever remove the enclosed surface, you will need to deal with the exposed lead-containing surfaces underneath.

Removal

You can use different approaches to remove lead-based paints. These may include wet hand scraping with liquid paint removers or wire brushing. Most of the times, the contractors choose to wet sand surfaces and use an electric sander that is equipped with HEPA filtered vacuum. Besides this, there’s another way to strip off lead paint and that is with a low temperature heat gun and hand scraping (as we discussed above).

Conclusion

Lead-based paint doesn’t pose a health hazard until and unless the paint is chipping, crushed, flaking, or sanded into dust. Most of the time, you get exposed to lead paint when you ingest it, and with the increase of lead exposure, the effects and severity of symptoms also increase. So, you should be aware of lead sources to minimize the health risks, as high exposure levels might lead to lead poisoning. Anyone could be at risk of lead poisoning, but young children and pregnant women are more at risk for health issues. If you have these individuals living in your home, then you need to be more cautious.

Protect your family from the hidden dangers of lead-based paint with GreenWorks Inspections. Our certified professionals specialize in thorough, reliable lead-based paint inspections, ensuring your home is a safe and healthy environment.